Forever Alone 4chan Prank Brings Out the Best and Worst of the Internet

“It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.” --Albert Einstein

A 4chan-engendered prank aimed at male users of online dating sites such as OKCupid and PlentyOfFish.com brought out the best and the worst of the internet tonight, when the e-forces of good and evil clashed by a set of payphones at 46th and Broadway in Times Square.

The elaborate gag, planned more than a month ago and circulated on 4chan and other forums, was for mischevious netizens to create fake dating profiles for women and set up dates with single “forever alone” men online. The dates were all supposed to meet on Friday night at the payphones on Broadway, which happen to be under a live streaming webcam, so the OKCupid/PlentyOfFish single guys could then be stood up en masse and snarked at by the much cooler 4chan/Reddit single guys sitting alone on their computers at home.

Betabeat sidled up to a grip of four guys in t-shirts standing across from the payphones which were swarmed with photographers and onlookers. One young man identified himself as Mr. White on TheRoganBoard, another as FifthSurprise from Reddit, a third as MatrixGravity from GameTrailers, and a fourth who was not from the internet and thus didn’t have a name. He was MatrixGravity’s friend. Didn’t he think this was really mean, we asked, figuring he was from the real world. “I think it’s hilarious,” he said.

Mr. White, who had pasted a poster of the contorted stick figure face that represents the “forever alone” meme, was arching his cellphone over his head. “There’s so many fucking losers out there, you know somebody’s going to fucking show up,” he said.

Had they ever real-life trolled before, we asked?

“I once told my girlfriend I had AIDS,” Mr. White said. “Then I broke up with her.” They laughed.

Ivan and Holly, a young couple from Maryland, had just been kicked out of their parents’ place. Rather than stew in suburbia, they decided to head to Times Square. “I never thought I would be here in real life, watching all these lulz,” said Holly, 20, who hopes to be a cosmetologist. “She’s the best,” confirmed Ivan, as the couple locked lips in front of the Forever Alone sticker plastered to the phone booth. They were cute trolls.

Betabeat could verify three guys who had actually been duped. Mr. Bright Blue Shirt, about 23, who had been leaning against a mailbox next to the payphones for about 20 minutes when Betabeat asked him what he was there for. “Oh no, that’s funny,” he said when Betabeat showed him the flier for the prank. “That’s not me. I’ve only been here about five minutes. I’m meeting a friend at 8:30.” He left shortly afterward.

4channers identified this man as a forever loner; in fact he was a blogger. "One of the ill effects of cruelty is that it makes the bystanders cruel." --Thomas Fowell Buxton

A man–blue checkered shirt, tie, blue eyes and long eyelashes–tapped on his BlackBerry by the TGIFridays.

“I guess I should leave,” he said, when Betabeat explained to him the prank, and started to tear away. “My date’s not coming,” he said. Wait, could we get a quote? “That’s okay,” he said, quickening his stride in the opposite direction of the subway. He was very sweet.

But the internet isn’t all cruel. Steven Liu of Lean Startup Machine had brought roses for the forever loners and recruited three girls to replace their misfired dates. “It seems like everyone here is in on the joke,” he said, as he filmed the scene with a Flip cam.

Steven Liu

Around 8 p.m. a cute redhead in braids approached a confused, brown haired 20-something who was BlackBerrying in the cave of one of the payphones. She spoke to him, he smiled, and they walked off awkwardly hand-in-hand. “This is the end of ‘forever alone,'” Mr. Liu whispered.

It’s cool those lil kids saw me put it up and they work for the a comedy club in the area. If anyone was going to take it I’m glad it was them, they almost shit themselves when they saw me put it up, they we extra excited.

In NZ, pretending to be someone else on a website is Illegal. I guess you live in one of those shitty countries that think they are all that, even though they are full of fucking cunts with nothing better to do than mess with people who were ONLY TRYING TO MAKE THEMSELVES HAPPY.

Yes, it’s FUCKING HILARIOUS that you managed to mess with them, hurt their feelings and make them afraid to try again. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU. YOU HAVE NO HONOR, NO HUMANITY, NO RIGHT TO LIVE ON THIS PLANET, YOU WORTHLESS HUMAN CENTIPEDE. YOU WILL TRULY BE FOREVER ALONE. BECAUSE NOBODY, NOWHERE WANTS YOU.

You know what would be fun? Going out and getting a date instead of wanking online because you, unlike these men, can’t get a girlfriend. ever.

Do you think women want to date a guy who gets his fun humiliating other human beings? If you hooked up with one, please for gods sake punch your girlfriend/sister in the womb so she miscarries and your unholy scum sucking spawn doesn’t ever get to see sunlight. K sweetie?

Oh, it was a FUNNY article? I get it. I swear, though, it kept sounding like it was about to end tragically, or something, like someone got injured (or worse). I mean, these 4chan/Reddit dudes obviously should get the unholy s*** beat out of them. On camera. One public humiliation deserves another.

For me, stories such as this are worse than all the heavy shit I read about involving wall street crooks, politicians, and war profiteers.

It shows that the educated, technocratic middle class are just as big a bunch of cruel assholes as their masters. Pretty damned well explains how the big crims get away with it with no protests or trials.

Maybe there’s something to be taken away from this regarding a cycle of abuse..

Ahaha, I love your your nick is cutey69.. You wishing for someone? because most girls don’t date 13 year olds pretending that being a cynic like V is hot. Bing a douchebag is not being part of Anonymous. Anonymous stand for not letting shit happen to good people. They don’t stand for fucking with peoples live for no other reason than shits and giggles.

Well, shooting you in the head is ‘lulz worthy’ (I hope that means ‘funny’) to me. Maybe I should do that! I would laugh so much at the fact that some of the scum of the earth have died, not only that but I would be contributing greatly to society; unlike yourself. You sit here and pretend to be cool by laughing at people trying do something with their lives and for what? You own sick, twisted sense of humour. You are pure revolting.

This is really super cruel and the people planning this dumb, immature, cruel joke had better hope none of the people who show up have any kind of severe depression that could trigger a suicide or something. I mean seriously. Only a sad, miserable person would actually partake and enjoy a prank like this and tell them that they’ll be alone forever. And don’t bother calling me a “moral faggot”, seriously, there’s no point, it only makes you look even more pathetic using homophobic slurs and actually making fun of someone for having morals. Who wants to associate with anyone who doesn’t have morals? Grow up people, and get a real sense of humor, this isn’t even funny. it’s just sad, and more so for the people who planned it than the people who got tricked.

Someone needs to shut 4chan down, I keep getting harassing phone calls because of my information being put on there. Can’t even block or put a restraining order on anyone because the number changes to quickly to be traced…please…anyone with a heart, stop this from happening not only for me, but for others who are probably going through the same shit!

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